Unless the Lord builds the house, its builders labour in vain. Unless the Lord watches over the city, the watchmen stand guard in vain’ (Psalm 127). That is a very profound thought. It’s a reminder that God is sovereign. He is the one with ultimate power and authority over human affairs. As individuals and societies we do well to acknowledge that.

Yet people in their rebellion constantly challenge God’s authority. We have another instance here in Genesis 11. Mankind has been given a new start following the flood. God has made a covenant with the human race in spite of its sinful tendencies that he will never again flood the earth. God will sustain the earth and provide through the reliability of the seasons the conditions for crops to grow to feed and provide for his creation. The rainbow becomes a reminder of God’s promise and his faithfulness.

Yet once again we see people attempting to trespass on God’s domain. They decide to build a city, and in that city build a tower that will reach up to the heavens. The implication there is that man will build his own access to God. Man is all-powerful, and he can do anything he chooses.

Notice that God acknowledges the potential for human achievement. ‘Nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them.’ What a profound insight from the earliest of times about the potential achievements of the human race. God knows that the race he has created will be capable of flight, of nuclear science, of computer technology.

But there are certain things that God will not permit. He will not allow man to gain access to heaven. So God acts in judgement. He confuses their language so that people could not understand each other, and scatters the people all over the earth. The inference is that is why people speak different languages across the world. God has created the language barrier. It restrains the human race from the attempt to gain access to heaven.

This is the last of the stories in this early part of Genesis that relate to the fall of mankind. People are put in their place. God restricts them by dividing them into racial groups to limit their potential for rebellion. In Old Testament times, this story had quite a significant lesson for the people of God. The place where this attempt to build the tower took place was called Babel. In the minds of the people of Israel, God’s chosen people this linked the Tower of Babel with the city of Babylon.

Babylon was the seat of the proud pagan religion of the ancient world. In fact the name Babylon means gate of God. The people of Babylon considered themselves closer to God than anyone else. Babylon was famous for it’s temple tower or ziggurat as it was called. The Babylonians claimed that the ziggurat’s foundations were in the underworld, and its top was in the heavens.

This is where the Babylonians were mistaken. The true God had revealed himself to the people of Israel. Solomon’s temple in Jerusalem was the special place of God’s presence.
Yet the ironic thing was that because of Israel’s sin god had brought judgement on Israel. Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon had conquered Jerusalem, destroyed the temple and taken the people of God into captivity in Babylon. How perplexing it would have been for God’s people to comprehend where God’s hand was in all of this. But this story said to God’s people of old, do not be misled by Babylon’s arrogant claims, their boasts of access to God are vain and empty. In reality Babylon is only Babel, confusion and folly. Man cannot by his skill and ambition gain access to God. He can only encounter God when God chooses to speak or reveal himself to man.

In fact God’s people lived to see the end of the Babylonian empire. Babylon was conquered by the Persians. That city and its ancient temple tower have lain in ruins for thousands of years. It’s rather ironic that an arrogant, evil 20th century character out of sheer vanity ordered that restoration should take place in the ruins of Babylon. That man was Saddam Hussein. He wanted to portray himself as being of equal significance to Nebuchadnezzar, ruler of the ancient Babylonian empire. Like the ancient builders of Babel he wanted to make a name for himself. He simply repeated their folly.

We have looked at the lesson for God’s people of old. What are the lessons of Babel for us today?

First of all there is a reminder for us in the twenty-first century with our scientific, medical and technological advances. When we push out the boundaries of human knowledge, we must remember that God has the right and power to limit what we can achieve.

This is not saying that scientific advance is wrong. Science is rooted in the reformation Christian tradition. The early scientists were Christian believers, as are many scientists today. But arrogant attempt to play God, are doomed to failure, just as the tower of Babel was. God reserves the right to be sovereign, and I am glad. On the other hand, when people seek in humility and with courage to make advances for the good of others, then great things can be achieved.

When the moon landing was made, the astronauts worshipped and shared communion there on the moon. Man needs to move forward in humility, with a right attitude towards his creator.

Secondly, there are many other human enterprises that can come to naught when approached in an attitude of godless, arrogant pride. If we have a right attitude to God we accept the truth that we are finite. We have limitations; we do not know what tomorrow holds for us. There are many variables in this world that are beyond our knowledge, yet they are known to God.

Ninety years ago a young lady proclaimed that she was sailing to America on the Titanic, a ship that was unsinkable. Her mother told her that there was no such thing as an unsinkable ship, but a lot of people who were responsible for the safety of that ship believed that false myth of the ship’s invincibility, and as a result many lives were lost. Time and again, mankind gets too big for his boots, and disaster follows.

Yet something has happened in our world’s history that has had a profound impact on the events of ancient Babel. On that occasion God divided mankind. He separated us into nations and tribes to contain our sinful ambitions. Yet God was not content to leave those he had made in his own image in that divided state.

When God sent his son into our world, Jesus came to gather the scattered children of God. He came to gather them together and to make them one. After Christ had died on the cross for our sins to reconcile us to God and had risen from the dead; he ascended to heaven. In doing that he opened the gate of heaven; the thing that the ancient builders of Babel miserably failed to do.

But besides that, to confirm God’s grace and blessing on mankind, God poured out his Holy Spirit on all believers. Do you remember the sign that accompanied the pouring out of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost? The apostles began to praise and extol God in other tongues; in foreign languages that they had never learned. In doing that, God gave the world a sign that in Jesus the effect of Babel has been reversed. In Christ, men and women of different nationalities, people who speak different languages are to become one in Christ.

Paul put it like this: ‘you are all children of God through faith in Christ Jesus, for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female for you are all one in Christ. The church of Jesus Christ is to be a community of those re-united as one family, the curse of Babel no longer a sentence of separation and alienation.

Yet we don’t see the full reality of that yet. Even in the church we are prone to pride and arrogance that divides people of different races. Yet God calls us on to what he has made possible through Jesus. We live in a world today where all the worlds inhabitants are closer to each other, air travel, television, the internet have made the world into what is often called a global village.

What the world need more than anything however, is the reality of the reconciling gospel.
With the help of the Holy Spirit, may God’s people, the Church of Jesus Christ turn from the pride and divisions of Babel, and in humility learn to be what God calls us to be in Christ: brothers and sisters reconciled in love to him and to one-another.
 

Amen.

Return to top of page